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Hide Windows Security Tray Icon in Windows 10

Recent versions of Windows 10 come with an app called Windows Security. The application, formerly known as "Windows Defender Security Center", has been renamed to Windows Security. It is intended to help the user control his security and privacy settings in a clear and useful way. The app has a tray icon, which is visible out of the box. If you are not happy to see it, here is number of ways to hide it.

You can launch Windows Security from the Start menu or with a special shortcut. Alternatively, you can access it using its tray icon. As of this writing, it looks as follows:

There is a helper tool which draws the icon. It is located here:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCuiL.exe"

Update: Starting in Windows 10 version 1809, the helper tool has got renamed. Now it is

C:\Windows\System32\SecurityHealthSystray.exe

This file runs at startup when you sign in to your Windows 10 account and so the icon appears in the tray. To get rid of the icon, you can remove the helper tool from startup. This operation has no side effect and will disable the tray icon completely.

Group Policy Option

Starting in Windows 10 version 1809 (Redstone 5), there is a special Group Policy option which allows hiding the tray icon of Windows Security. If you are running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor app to configure the option with a GUI, as follows.

About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.